Hey, I'm in the Band!
by The Square
Summary: An essay I wrote for my english final about high school stigmas and most importantly, marching band. Not so much actual marching, but more of a look at how people treat kids who are members of the marching band. Please read? It doesn't suck.


**(A/N: this is part of my english final and I thought I would post it here cuz I haven't been able to post cuz of finals. This isn't really "fiction" it's an essay concerning cliques in high school -- specifically marching band. since this is not fanfiction, the contents of this belong to me.)**

**I'm in the Marching Band.**

**There, I Said It**

She encouraged us to say our names and something we liked, and then I panicked. It was the second day of geometry and my teacher was attempting to get to know her new fourth period class. I quickly racked my brain for something I liked. What did I like? Should I bring up marching band? Is that too geeky? I barely know anyone in this class. What will everyone think? Oh no.

"I'm The Square (sorry...had to edit name) and I like music." I chickened out. I was too ashamed of my membership in the marching band to admit that I spent the past week at school working for more than eight hours a day on marching fundamentals and memorizing the show music. My face shone a slight red at my own cowardice and I carefully examined my shoes for the rest of the period.

High school is full of cliques and self-segregation. Within the student population, there is a system of oppression that teachers can detect, but often choose to ignore. It's easier to ignore problems than challenge them, especially if you are not directly involved.

People will look down at you no matter what your social standing. They don't need to know you; they just need to know what your hobbies are or what you look like. The band geeks only dislike the cheerleaders because they think the cheerleaders laugh at them. They don't know us and we don't know them. But the stigma is still there: all cheerleaders are jerks and all members of the marching band are losers and are sexually active, which is definitely not the case for most of us.

Extracurricular activities scoring highest on the scale of social leprosy fall into three distinct groups: stage crew, sci-fi fantasy club, and the marching band. Treatment of people within these groups varies. Some avoid them and others befriend them. The lepers will associate with one another regularly. What is painstakingly awful about having another strike against popularity? However, those graced to be at the top of high school's social hierarchy shun the leper groups as if they were contagious. This cruelty is not often directly returned, but is noticed. It's easier to leave the social stigmas alone. You won't get singled out if you don't cause trouble. Invisibility is the ultimate defense.

Social division in the high school environment could be a reflection of the prejudiced society that has existed as long as humans have. It's ridiculous to assume that kids are jerks to each other just because of hormones. Everyone is influenced by the people around them, their parents especially. We take the values and ideas of our parents and adapt them to fit our lives and circumstances. When you hear your parents complaining about someone in their workplace or gossiping about something, you are bound to repeat it.

Paulo Freire mentions in the Pedagogy of the Oppressed the prejudices of the exploiters. The exploiter's prejudices include ". . . a lack of confidence in the people's ability to think, to want, and to know" (42). The same is true for high school. The socially graced believe that everyone wants to be like them, date them, hang out with them, or somehow envies them. Most of us lepers do wish we weren't so isolated but we're happy with who we are. We don't do much to fight back against our oppressors. We take it pretty quietly, because if there were no stigma, honestly, the marching band wouldn't be the same. We are a family from all ranks of the social hierarchy that has bonded over a common interest of music, marching, having fun, and spending too many hours at school. Long ago, we accepted our geekiness.


End file.
